Barcelona’s Montjuic Parc – home of the historic and ill-fated F1 track and the ’92 Olympic stadium – is one of the greenest spaces in the magnificent Catalan capital…and was turned an extra shade of emerald last Thursday as the Kawasaki Racing Team unveiled their livery for 2016, the new Ninja ZX-10R and of course two exceptional racers in the forms of Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes.
Guests, team personnel, press and even Catalan government dignitaries were part of the audience and witnessed a presentation outlining the remarkable seven year existence of the Provec team from their roots in World Supersport to a swashbuckling two World SBK titles (and two runner-up positions) in just four years. The strong connection between the crew and their work developing the ZX-10R and Kawasaki with the KHI HQ in Japan was emphasised and much was made of the 2016 incarnation of the rapier-shaped model that has already carried Tom Sykes, in particular, to some emphatic lap-times in pre-season tests.
“It is a real race-bike and suits my style much more,” said the exuberant 2013 champion, now into his fifth year in green. “My first laps on it were exciting and just got better. We have the best chance and the best package on the grid and have been developing this bike through ’12, ’13, ’14 and ’15. Given our form in testing I cannot wait for it [the season] to begin.”
It was Rea who was first on the stage after one of the most comprehensive campaigns in world superbike history and carried the Irishman to his first world crown. His synergy with Kawasaki in their debut season together resulted in 14 wins and 23 podium appearances from 26 races. “Of course I feel the pressure, I’m human and I’m not perfect and this winter I needed to go deeper within myself to find new motivation. I started my training programme earlier and with the tests we have worked on getting the bike faster through different conditions,” the 29 year old champ said. “It is an exciting time for us. It will be hard to have a season like 2015 but we will take the same step-by-step philosophy and try to defend this championship with the best support in the world.”
While Rea’s crew chief, former racer Pere Riba, was able to climb the plinth and exult the “better package” that the ZX-10R presents it was Sykes’ engineer, Marcel Duinker who provided the line of the evening by saying he hoped Kawasaki fans and race followers of Superbike would “enjoy the green domination in 2016”.
The World SBK season gets underway at the end of the month with the first of fourteen rounds (twenty-eight races) taking place at the sweeping and epic Phillip Island circuit in Australia. Kawasaki enforced their slogan for the new ZX-10R at the presentation: ‘Get Closer’. While it seems in reference to the parity between the race and production machinery it is hard not to see it also as a challenge to the rest of the Superbike grid for the year to come.
Credit Monster